Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) and Application in Dealing with Complex, Challenging, and Recurring Crises

Sticky crises present unique challenges to crisis managers thereby serving as a provocation to crisis communication researchers. The provocation provided by sticky crises is the need to reconsider the existing crisis communication knowledge base. At times, researchers and practitioners overreact to new factors influencing crisis communication by claiming everything we once knew is no longer valid. We witnessed some of the invalidation claims appearing when social media complicated crisis communication. Sticky crises do not invalidate the existing crisis communication knowledge base but do create an exigency to expand that knowledge base. Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) is an essential element within the crisis communication knowledge base. This chapter examines SCCT’s applicability to sticky crises. That exploration involves elaborating on SCCT, identifying where SCCT fits with sticky crises, and detailing where the theory misses with sticky crises. The fit helps to explain how SCCT still works for sticky crises, while the misses identify gaps in SCCT where additional insights are needed when managing sticky crises. The chapter provides some insights into how sticky crises can affect the evolution of crisis communication research and theory.